There are “problems” faced by characters in sitcoms that don’t bother us.
Me: mixing up identical twin babies
In Full House, The Simpsons, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody etc. the identical twin babies were possibly mixed up. This is seen as a big problem and hilarity generally ensues as they try to figure out which baby is which. But if they’re newborns, who cares? It’s not like they have any idea what their names are or a sense of identity yet. Unless one had a medical condition the other doesn’t, what does it hurt if in the early days baby A becomes baby B? Sure, if they’re not feed at the same time one baby might get an extra feeding one time, but whatever.
What clichéd problems faced by fictional characters wouldn’t feel like a crisis if it happened to you?
You’re invited to some social event, but don’t want to go. In a sitcom, you’d make up some hairbrained excuse, and then your story would fall apart, and you’d end up having to layer ever-increasingly absurd stories to cover up your previous absurd stories. In real life, you just say “No thanks, I’m just staying home and chilling this weekend”.
Alternatively, you’d come up with a transparent excuse, the other person would realize it was a transparent excuse, you’d both tacitly agree to accept the polite fiction, and no more would be said about it.
The whole “we’re-having-the-boss-over-for-dinner-but-something’s-gone-wrong-with-the-meal-so-we’ve-got-to-come-up-with-a-lie” business. (For example, as seen in The Simpsons’ “22 Short Films About Springfield” with Skinner having Superintendent Chalmers over for lunch. You know…“steamed hams”?)
As I said in another post about that, I’d see nothing wrong with just admitting that there’d been a kitchen mishap and offering to take said boss to a nice restaurant. I rather think most people would understand that Murphy’s Law sometimes occurs and that it’s not some deliberate insult.
As I recall, there’s a Father Brown mystery that has to do someone who’d rather sit in his comfy chair with a cheap paperback thriller, than talk to a visitor.
ETA: Yep, found it in “The Wisdom of Father Brown” - title redacted to avoid spoiler…
You can stop right there. Did that EVER happen in real life? It’s such a staple of shows like Bewitched, that I started to think maybe it was based on reality.
My dad would’ve been the Darrin Stevens having his boss over. My dad was VP of a bank in the 50’s and 60’s, for thirty years or so, and he got along great with his boss. He’d go golfing or play tennis with the boss and sometimes clients, but I asked my mom if he’d ever bring them home for dinner. (Now, on these sitcoms it was always on short or no notice, but I asked my mom if it EVER happened, even planned a month out…)
She just went Pfffft! and said "If he’d pulled that, I’d’ve said “Sorry, I’m going to be out of town that night. Don’t know where or why, but waaaay out of town.”
A lot of shows have the scenario of somebody finding themselves completely naked in public with no easy way of hiding (because they’re locked out of their house when they were getting the paper in a towel, somebody steals their clothes when they were skinny-dipping/showering, or they were tricked into getting naked) and as they run around using their hands as the sole means of protecting their modesty they encounter a situation that requires the use of both hands or else they’d suffer injury or even death and they decide to panic and delay trying to make a literal life or death decision because they still wish to preserve their modesty (The most common scenario is they need to use both their hands to scale a fence or open a door because they’re being chased by something usually an aggressive dog)
I’m positive 99.9% of actual people would instantly stop covering themselves to escape injury instead of amusingly futzing around looking at the fence and then looking at the dog and back.
The sympathetic male lead being upset and put out by his wife making more money…Yes this happens in real life, but dudes who feel that way are not sympathetic and aren’t people you’d want to watch a show about.
Pretending to be the boss in your work place when your out-of-town parents/relatives/significant other visits because you might have inflated your job title. Could that ever happen in real life?
saw this on 3 different shows in 1 year : Boss is kicked out of house by his wife and has to spend the night with the employee who is not real fond of him.